Seat Ensurance

Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
Hi, guys!
Exactly 2 weeks after getting my car an 80 year old lady made an U-turn while I was stationary and she misjudged her turning radius and scratched my rear bumper (fortunately just the right corner - everything is intact). Called my insurance (Admiral) and they will fix my car, but not with the dealer, but a local garage. Auxilis has taken over the logistics of the repair. If I’d choose to go with the dealer I’d be liable to pay the excess, which is 600£. Fortunately my no claim bonus won’t be affected.
I’ve also signed up for the Seat Ensurance and called them as well https://www.insurewithseat.co.uk/Products/Ensurance/
Waiting for the to call me back. Has anyone gone through them when claiming their insurance? How does it work?
 

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Legojon

I only wanted a remap
Staff member
Moderator
Jul 7, 2015
5,284
2,713
I'm not sure, but I thought you were supposed to call Seat Ensurance first? So, has she admitted liability? I recently had a truck rip my entire bumper off, he admitted liability. I took it to my repairers. I dealt 100% with his insurers and all they said is "it's not part of our repair network, so may take longer to get it repaired". But I didn't pay a penny out.
 
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SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,387
1,278
@Clodius; sorry to hear about your damage - it’s really annoying, especially so soon after getting the car. Hopefully, the repair will be to a good standard so you won’t know there was ever any damage.

Insurers usually negotiate really ‘keen’ rates with their recommended repairers (in other words, they screw them down on what they’ll pay for repairs), so there’s a risk that some repairers may cut corners when undertaking repairs, if the job looks like costing them any more than the insurer will pay them. There are discussion threads on the forum where forum members have used their insurer’s recommended repairer, and the outcome has been a substandard repair.

https://forums.seatcupra.net/index.php?threads/insurance-repair-advice.445787/

Do you know if the garage doing the job will be removing the bumper to paint it or masking up the surrounding panels and painting it while still attached to the car? Are the repairers a Seat approved body shop (some insurer-approved bodyshops are also manufacturer approved).

If it was me, I’d be wanting it repaired / repainted off the car. If the work is done with the bumper still attached to the car;
  • there may be a risk of paint spray drift onto any adjacent panels if they’re not be adequately masked off,
  • painting the bumper in situ may leave tell tale signs that it’s been repainted; e.g;
    • the possibility of the repainting leaving a ’hard’ paint edge along the edge of the panel gap between the bumper and rear quarter panels where the rear quarter panels have been masked off
    • paint spray drift around the lower tailgate opening
Ensure you inspect the repairs very carefully after they’ve been completed for good colour match and paint finish.

I’ve never used Ensurance. Auxilis are acclaims management company, so they will coordinate repairs and arrange a hire car while yours is being repaired. These companies are bad news for the insurance industry in general as the costs they charge back to the insurance company for such things as the provision of courtesy / hire cars are generally significantly more than the insurers will have negotiated with their suppliers to supply a courtesy car. These higher costs ultimately get passed back to the likes of us as policyholders in the form of increased premiums so we all end up paying.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly for you and your car will soon be back to its pre-damaged state.

Please keep the forum updated on progress and the outcome.
 
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Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
The lady was initially offering me 50£ for the repairs, saying it will affect my no claim bonus as well. Being my first car here in the UK, I had no idea if she was lying so I called the insurance company to ask about this. They started taking my details and the ones regarding the accident so I didn’t have the chance to call Seat Ensurance. First thing I did after that was call Seat Ensurance, they also took my details and said they’d call me back on a working day with all the information. So far I haven’t confirmed/signed anything with Auxilis and I won’t until I hear from Seat.
The thing is that the scratch isn’t that bad, but the car was immaculate, has only 2 years and just passed 20,000 miles today. What I don’t like is that the bumper is now not fully aligned with the rear fender (a couple of millimeters of the wheel arch being pushed in). The clamps went right back in, so these don’t seem to be damaged.
Anyway, long story short, the lady was trying to play it down, that it’s not that serious and after getting into a fight she barely gave me her last name, but Admiral found out all of her details, insurance policy included. I also have pictures and a witness who was kind enough to give me his details which I passed on to the insurer, in case she challenges the claim. She didn’t even notice that she’d hit me, couldn’t hear well, couldn’t see well. I don’t think that she should be driving in these conditions. Her front bumper had a lot of previous marks (notice that her damage from hitting my car was only the corner of her bumper) https://ibb.co/bHGkrNj
 
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Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
Updates: Seat Ensurance called (they booked me with Citygate Colindale). What they said it will happen is I get the car fixed with Seat, I pay the excess fee (600£ - quite steep for a scratched bumper) and they will recover it from the third party’s insurance company.
I will also get a hire car for the time of the repair
 
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KXL

KXL
Dec 15, 2016
1,581
197
London, UK
I had a similar scratch after reversing into a bollard that wasn't there when I entered (long story). I used a firm in Hendon UK, that charged me just under £100 to fix. They even matched Alor Blue correctly.
 

Adrian300

Active Member
Jun 10, 2019
259
113
Im sure its incorrect that you have to use who your insurer says. I would google it they use scare tactics to make you use these repairers that they have as mention by op "keen rates". But from my experience these places are shoddy!

I worked at vw/skoda for a number of years. At the time i had a vw jetta which was in a bump, not my fault, lady pulled out of a fuel station right into passenger front door! Anyway i got her details and spoke to her insurance as she admitted liability. They also tried tried to make me use their so called approved repairers.... Im like no chance... I am using an approved vw bodyshop which happened to to be at the vw dealer where i worked as we had our own bodyshop.

So in the end i found out where i worked had an accident aftercare service which basically did all leg work for me. And they told me its BS about using insurance companies so called approved repairers...

Sent from my GM1913 using Tapatalk
 
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TheMarkOfTel

Active Member
May 7, 2019
22
6
Updates: Seat Ensurance called (they booked me with Citygate Colindale). What they said it will happen is I get the car fixed with Seat, I pay the excess fee (600£ - quite steep for a scratched bumper) and they will recover it from the third party’s insurance company.
I will also get a hire car for the time of the repair
Surely you don't need to pay the excess if you arent at fault? Usually its your choice who you get your car repaired by..
 

Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
Thanks, guys. Will see what Seat Ensurance works out with the excess, if I have to pay for it in the end, or not and the rest. Will keep you posted as it might benefit others in the same situation
 

Adrian300

Active Member
Jun 10, 2019
259
113
If its not your fault you shouldnt have to pay anything.

Sent from my GM1913 using Tapatalk
 

Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
@martin j., yes it’s a Micra . When she got out of the car I realised she couldn’t hear me well (told me to speak up), couldn’t see very well either (she said that also) and first thing she went for her walking stick. How can she drive like that?
 

SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,387
1,278
If its not your fault you shouldnt have to pay anything.

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^This.

And as has been said, you don’t have to use the insurer’s recommended repairer. Many insurers will impose additional terms in the small print of their policy document if you opt to use your own preferred repairer, such as an increased excess, or no courtesy car, but as you’re not at fault, if you do incur any costs or charges by going to a repairer of your choice, then these should form part of the overall claim to be met by the other party’s insurer.

If you’re being faced with paying a £600 excess for what looks like a minor cosmetic repair, if there’s any risk it might not be recovered I’d be questioning the effectiveness of Seat Ensurance and Auxilis. £600 is a large excess; it’ll probably cost less then this for your bumper repairs.
 
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jt20vt

Active Member
Sep 17, 2010
185
41
A body shop would charge from £250 per panel in my area, so would make me think twice with an excess of £600. As already said before if the other party are accepting liability then you should have nothing to pay. In the past I had someone run into the back of me at a round about. They didn't anticipate there speed and the traffic in front of me. They admitted liability so my insurance didn't take an excess due to them not having to sort the repair and charged the other parties insurance company for all the admin etc. In the end the bumper was repaired with filler and paint as it had slight damage. The other party ended up having new bonnet, front grill and lights.:drive2:
 
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Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
Didn’t even fix my rear bumper and now someone hit me in front one (left side). Car was parked in front of my house and I literally was 1 minute away from home. Unbelievable! Gotta change residence or buy barb wire fence
 

Lmbarrett83

Active Member
Sep 8, 2017
1,538
619
Sheffield
I’ve had two non fault claims and had to use SEAT Ensurance both times.

As I wasn’t at fault I didn’t have to pay any excess for my claims.

However because all the costs were to be paid by the 3rd party I had to await authorisation from them to accept the charges.

This caused delays, major delays on my second non fault claim.

If your car isn’t road worthy the delays aren’t as bad as you get a like for like replacement. In my case I got better cars in the form of an S3 the first time and the golf R the second time.

On my second claim though my car was road worthy and I had to wait a couple of months for authorisation from the 3rd party, before I got the courtesy car and repairs.

If I’d have chosen to pay my excess I would have got the work done sooner.




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Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
Yeah, it seems to be taking some time. After 2 weeks, my insurance company, Admiral, advised me to ask Seat Ensurance to redirect the repair estimates to the third party insurance company, Axa. Now I have to wait for Axa’s approval. Hopefully they have already been informed of the incident by Admiral so I don’t have to go through explaining again what happened.
I don’t mind that much the wait since the bumpers are just scratched, I can drive the car anyway, and as long as my NCB is not affected
 

adamsupergeek

Active Member
Dec 11, 2018
123
81
You’re no claims won’t be affected but your premium will still go up at renewal, even for a no-fault claim. Mine almost doubled after a non-fault claim a few years ago even though I had protected no claims!
 
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Clodius

Active Member
Jun 23, 2019
26
5
London
That is so wrong and unfair (I just did a simulation on confused.com adding the 2 incidents for last year and it’s almost doubled). I haven’t done anything wrong, but I still have to pay for it.
 
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